There’s a Mario piggy in Angry Birds Epic

If your head is still spinning from the realization that there’s an Angry Birds RPG on the horizon, you’ll want to sit down for this one. The game soft-launched in Canada and Australia last night, and after 30 minutes or so, we bumped into a pig that looked pretty darned familiar.

Red hat. Moustache. Pipe. Mushrooms. I’ll let you be the judge:

It’s-a-him! Mario!

Whether a clever nod to a classic franchise or a “@#$% YOU NINTENDO, WE’RE COMING!!”, Rovio has seen fit to include an homage to everyone’s favorite socially-acceptable Italian stereotype. We haven’t seen any other hat tips quite yet, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled.

There’s still no word on the official launch yet, but here’s a spoiler to keep you warm while you wait: it’s really good.

Stay tuned to Gamezebo as we try to elaborate on that later this week.